Don Georgevich

Ensemble Caprice under the direction of Matthias Maute presents Joseph de Boismortier's baroque opera-ballet Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse, featuring singers Arthur Tanguay-Labrosse (Don Quixotte), Dominique Cote (Sancho Panza), Catherine St-Arnaud (Altisidora) and Geoffroy Salvas (Merlin and Montesinos).

Solti conducted Don Giovanni in nine performances during the 1954 Glyndebourne season : on July 7, 9, 11, 14, 17, 21, 23, 25, 27. These performances of Don Giovanni were Georg Solti's only Glyndebourne appearances. This complete performance was broadcast live from the opera house on 17 July 1954. The source recording is part of the 'Itter Broadcast Collection' held by Lyrita Recorded Edition Trust.

This is the second fine Don Giovanni we have had within the past year. Like Gardiner (Archiv), Mackerras includes every note Mozart wrote for both the original Prague version and the Viennese revival. Moreover, it is easier than ever for listeners to ‘programme in’ their preferred version: all Prague die-hards have to do is to bypass Don Ottavio’s ‘Dalla sua pace’ in Act I – a beautiful aria, in all conscience, though it holds up the dramatic action at a crucial stage. By coaxing a modern orchestra into a real awareness of period style, Mackerras seems to have the best of both worlds: the playing has admirable liveliness and intensity, and there are none of the intonation problems that so often plague actual period instruments.

Raimondi has advantages: the dark coloring of his voice, the vocal menace, the power of his bass." The three ladies - especially the Te Kanawa has become livelier, more insistent - Maazel has the singers and Mozart firmly in hand.

– Hermes Lexikon

Don Giovanni’s special amalgam of dark drama and sparkling comedy is captured with startling immediacy by Carlo Maria Giulini. The Viennese baritone Eberhard Wächter faces a particularly formidable pair of noble ladies: Donna Anna in the form of Joan Sutherland (in one of her rare recordings for a label other than Decca) and the Donna Elvira of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf.

On the release date of our Sir Roger Norrington retrospective boxset, we also release his long-lost instrumental recordings of Brahms. Norrington approached this project after recording his Beethoven cycle, wondering if mid-19th-century would fit with his views on historically informed performance: “Tempos spacious but forthright; tempo modification, sensitive but simple; textures clear, as benefits such polyphonic writing; balance restored in favour of the winds…” A definitively original vision that gives these recordings a unique appeal.

The late lamented Edita Gruberová, who passed away last October, was perhaps at the peak of her powers in Mozartian repertoire during the late 80s, particularly under the baton of Nikolaus Harnoncourt. This beautiful version of Don Giovanni with Thomas Hampson, available for the first time in digital format, allows us to enjoy her mesmerizing Donna Anna.